A business warehouse system is a business information storage system that includes a database. The database typically requires a reporting tool with which a user can access and work with any type of document. For example, SAP AG of Walldorf Germany provides its own Business Warehouse (BW), which includes a reporting tool used to work with data in the BW database, called a Business Explorer (BEx). BEx has a Web-based user interface and is made up of two components, a BEx browser and a BEx analyzer.
The BEx browser provides an organized interface in the BW to documents such as workbooks, links, and BW Web reports. The BW database itself is segmented into discrete data areas called InfoCubes, which are made up of data and associated metadata. The BEx analyzer allows the user to examine segmented data in a variety of useful combinations, for example when comparing financial data for different fiscal years.
A database such as in SAP BW contains all the relevant data a customer needs for their analysis. To read and access this data, the customer creates and uses queries, such as BEx Queries. These queries are the basic element for various types of analysis. However, these queries are each a local object, which means it is only possible to work with them locally within the business warehouse system.
It is common behavior for companies to work with large system landscapes that have several servers and several business warehouse systems. Thus, there exists a need to combine data from different systems within a single application, as well as a need for a query protocol for receiving queries from a number of data consumers, including mobile devices.